Beer: Ratings & Reviews

Reviews by Hamburgers:

Vintage 2012. Bottle #1140. Pours black with thin brown head. Aroma is dried fruit, vanilla, easy on bourbon. Smells like a BBA barley Wine. Flavor is sweet, fruity and again easy on the bourbon. Medium body with good carbonation. Very good. Ready to drink now which is fine cause I am drinking it now....

Flavor exactly matches: the barrel takes center stage, but not in a way that it washes away the stout base. Brew loses some of the kick-in-the-teeth roasted bitterness that base IST has, but it compensates with a perfect smoothness.

Extremely smooth brew. Any fan of BBA stouts should be well pleased. You do lose out a bit on IST's bite (think Narwhal vs BBA Narwhal, a very clear parallel IMO), but it's a beautiful and smooth beer.

The beer opens with a little bit of gushing and pours a dark brown color with red highlights and a tan head. The aroma is chocolate, dark fruit, alcohol and roasted malt. The flavor is roasted and burnt malt with some smoke, oak and chocolate. Medium to thick mouthfeel and low carbonation. Other than a little bit of oak in the flavor, I didn't get much barrel-aged character out of the beer.

I think the beer may have been slightly infected because a few of the people I tried it with got some slight infection notes in the flavor, but I couldn't tell. I liked the beer, but I think I liked the regular version as much or better.

T: The flavor follows suit. Heavy notes of vanilla and liquorish both blended smoothly together in perfect harmony. Chocolate notes are evident on the pallet. If this was aged in bourbon barrels it is hard to tell, but their is a booziness to this beer.

MF: The mouthfeel is the killer here. Way over carbonated and a little to thin to be a huge stout.

Overall, I would say I'm disappointing, but definitely not impressed. The barrel aging and blending of chocolate flavors could have been done much better. The mouthfeel is almost a disaster, but this still manages to be a decent brew.

Thanks to Alex for sharing this one! Poured from bottle into NB globe. Opaque black liquid, super foamy tan head that thins out very slowly. Smell is wet wood, chocolate, some sour infected notes. Taste is smokey oak, alcohol, chocolate cherries, a bit of dark roasted malt. It is hard to pick much taste out because the carbonation is out of control. Mouthfeel is medium, thin and watery for an imperial stout with an intense carbonation. I did not enjoy this beer but would give it another chance since this one was most likely infected.

S: Booziness from the barrels is apparent along with hints of bitter chocolate, licquorice, and roasted coffee beans. Also a fair amount of charcoal and brown sugar in there. Aromas overall are a bit muted though.

T: Big booziness and ethanol upfront that covers up and dominates all the other flavors. This dissipates really slowly, only allowing the stouty chocolate and coffee flavors to appear towards the very end of the experience. Finish is a sticky, molasses with an aftertaste that is weirdly crisp and clean.

M: Light to medium bodied, highly carbonated, and rather rough and abrasive in the mouth. Not characteristic of the style at all and the liveliness prevents the complexities in this beer from melding together. Finish is sticky with a clean aftertaste.

D: This beer is a great example of the idea that barrel-aging doesn't make everything better. Not a bad beer by any means but Christ!!! is it over-carbonated. Maybe they should blend this with flat older viscosity and see what happens!?!? I'd give it another shot but its definitely not worth the hype.

balosss on BA hooked me up with a bottle of this in a trade. Not sure how big the bottle was as it had a weird shape and no indication - maybe 500ml or so? Sweet, another barrel aged beer. I live for these.

Pours black with a nice tan head leaving good foam and lacing.

Aroma is caramel, anise, chocolate, coffee, and roast. Very nice.

Flavor is pretty good, with oak barrel noticeable as well as roast, coffee, whiskey, caramel, and some spice.

Medium-bodied on the palate and fairly dry with medium carbonation.

Good stuff overall, but not quite up to the level of others I had with it: GI BCBCS, Surly Four, and FW Parabola.

Massive thanks goes out to nyrangerfan for sending me this bottle in a past trade! Bottle shared with Lunch and Huhzubendah during our private tasting session at Sexual Chocolate '11. Served from bottle into a sampler snifter. Poured pitch black with a with a massive light tan head with a very careful pour (over-carbonated much?). There was no lacing evident throughout the glass. The aroma was comprised of sweet malt, brown sugar, caramel, wood, and slight alcohol. The flavor was of sweet malt, sugar, caramel, wood, slight alcohol, and a very muted tart flavor (infected?). It had a medium feel on the palate with stupid high carbonation. Overall this was a decent brew, but nothing awe-inspiring. The carbonation on this was just plain retarded... It was almost like I took a sip of it and then stuck a hose pumping Carbon Dioxide inside my mouth to form bubbles. It was literally like drinking flavored foam. Needless to say, the carbonation killed this one for me. It is worth ticking, but that is about it in my opinion.